Posted on 11/16/2001 1:24:12 PM PST by callisto
A videotape that could show exactly what happened to American Airlines Flight 587, which crashed three minutes after taking off from New York's JFK airport on Monday, is in the hands of the FBI -- but the bureau has thus far declined to release it.
New York City's Metropolitan Transportation Authority spokesman Tom Kelly confirmed to the Daily News Friday that the agency has given surveillance videotapes from Cross Bay Blvd. and Marine Parkway bridges to the FBI.
"One tape captures the plane taking off from JFK," the News said.
Cross Bay Blvd. and Marine Parkway traverse Jamaica Bay, where the plane's vertical stabilizer was discovered intact after the crash.
Dozens of eyewitnesses have told media outlets they saw an explosion and/or a fire at the juncture of Flt. 587's wing and fusilage moments before it began to break up, losing its tail first, then both its engines.
Catastrophic engine failure, which was first suspected to have caused the explosion, was ruled out Tuesday after NTSB investigators examined the engines and found no evidence of mechanical failure.
Since discovering the engines were working properly, NTSB spokeswoman Marion Blakely -- along with most media outlets -- have quietly dropped references to witness accounts of a midair explosion.
The NTSB now says that wind turbulence from another plane is the most likely cause of the crash. One former jumbo jet veteran pilot was highly skeptical of the turbulence theory.
"If wind turbulence caused that accident, I'll never fly again," Barry Schiff, who flew 747's for TWA, told the New York Post.
But a videotape showing the exact sequence of Flt. 587's break-up could clear up any mystery, showing whether or not the break-up was caused by an explosion or by turbulence.
It's not clear why the FBI has not yet released the MTA video -- or even commented on what it shows. It's also not clear why the Flt. 587 video was not turned over to the NTSB instead of the FBI, which had reportedly adopted a secondary role in the wake of NTSB claims that the crash was an accident.
When an Air France Concorde jetliner crashed after catching fire on takeoff from a rural French airport last year, an amatuer video of the accident was released within 48 hours.
Calls to the FBI's New York office and to MTA spokesman Kelly were not returned by presstime.
One thing about a successful coverup is that you won't see any true evidence of it.
How do you know that she is a witch?
Well, she turned me into a newt.
A newt?
Well...I got better.
Click here for Robert Novak's November 13 column on the motivation for a possible cover-up of a terrorist cause for the Flt. 587 crash ("Another blow to the economy, and maybe the GOP"). But then again, maybe you consider even such a distinguished columnist a "conspiracy theorist." And I thought only the Democrats had been "Clintonized"....
Four or five, yeah.
But not two, never.
That's what I'm on about.
They haven't had time to doctor it properly yet.
Yes, sir. But it also means you examine critically what your government does and says. And I don't care how much you harangue, the Flt. 587 investigation isn't passing the "smell test" yet for me...and LOTS of others, including aviation and terrorism experts, not simply the fellow FReepers you seem to disdain so much now.
In a free Constitutional Republic, the answer would be "yes." In this country, the answer is clearly "no."
In a "TGIF" mood? ;-)
The sleeping public will fall for just about anything. Thats the problem. Thats why we need to discuss all of the possibilities. Why are you so opposed to hearing arguments on both sides? You seem insist on a daily basis that because we want honest answers we are seeking some grand conspiracy. There seems to be logical and valid reasoning that this was an accident offered on this forum by credible, knowledgeable pilots. I have also seen experts argue opposing views that seem to be equally credible. I find the constant criticism of the eyewitnesses to be totally out of line as well. Why is everyone dismissing their accounts? The credibility of these eyewitness should not be compared with that of the flt. 800 eyewitnesses - totally different circumstances and proximity to the crash. The people who have lived in that neighborhood for years, in the shadows of daily flight activity, are probably quite aware of what they saw and heard.
Once again, please don't try to separate the NTSB from the president, because to cover up a terrorist act would require everyone to be in on the story - including the guy at the top who is running the war.
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